Rhona Martin's women's curlers moved themselves into real medal contention with a controlled 8-6 win over Denmark, their fifth win out of seven starts on Ogden's Ice Sheet.

They now lie third in the ranking and one win out of their two remaining round-robin games will clinch a semi-final slot.

The British quartet controlled this game from the outset.

Denmark had last stone advantage in the first end but Martin's team restricted then to just one shot.

The teams then traded singles in the second and third ends before Britain made their breakthrough in the fourth.

New confidence

Danish skip Lene Bidstrup caught front guards with each of her stones, while by contrast Martin was deadly accurate with her stones, drawing to score three with her second shot.

This gave Britain a cushion for the rest of the game.

It's easy to say just one more win out of two.. but it's not a done deal yet, we really have to play well and win

Rhona Martin, GB skip

Denmark could do no more than score singles in each of the fifth, seventh and ninth ends, while Britain responded with twos at the sixth and the eighth, when a confident Martin played a delicate tap-up to score.

Martin then got her team out of potential trouble in the ninth with a good take-out shot and the British team ran their opponents out of stones in the tenth end.

At this stage, Denmark scored another consolation point to make the final score 8-6, but Britain had secured another crucial victory.

Cautious approach

Martin's women now lie third in the rankings, behind unbeaten Canada and Switzerland, who have the same five wins as Britain but have a game in hand.

Afterwards, while acknowledging that she was still on course for a medal, Martin was cautious.

"This is easy...not! It was a steady performance by everybody today, but we still made a few errors when we didn't need them.

"It's easy to say just one more win out of two, but we're going to have to concentrate on Sunday, because Germany and USA are both still fighting for places.

"It's not a done deal yet, we really have to play well and win".

In the running

With Canada already assured of their semi-final slot, the other places can theoretically still go to any three of seven teams, including Britain.

Only Russia and Japan are out of the reckoning at this stage.

While one more win would keep British hopes alive, two victories would definitely keep them clear of any possible tie-breakers.

That also means they would finish in second or third place, with the additional bonus of avoiding Canada in the semi-finals.